Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20180904

Present at mccains funeral except the president , who is tweeting grievances about the doj and fbi. That twitter activity continued over the Labor Day Holiday and yesterday trump levied another attack on attorney general Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department, an attack that is quite notable even by trump standards. Good morning, and welcome to morning joe. Its tuesday, september 4th. I guess the summers officially over. With us we have former treasury official and morning joe economic an solicit Steve Rattner. Politics editor for the bailey beast sam stein. Nbc news Political Correspondent and host of kasie dc on msnbc. Yeah, kase hunt. Oh, yeah. Ro rockin into the fall. And columnist of the Washington Post Eugene Robinson and columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post David Ignatius and editorinchief of lawfair benjamin witis along with willie, joe and me and joe, wow, as we get ready to launch into the year, its an incredible moment in history marking the passing of john mccain. It is. Were going to talk about all that. We have so much to talk about pt we could i know we all want to catch up on the john mccain funeral quickly before we get to news. We could talk about the Aretha Franklin funeral which was pretty extraordinary. Yeah. You could talk about a lot of things that happened over the long push tod long fourday weekend. Mika a tough, difficult time for you. What . No. You know, all good things must come to an end. Oh. Willie and i were talking this morning. Some of the saddest lines ever in western music. I woke up this morning and the sums gone. Turned on my music, to start my day, and dream about a pig i used to know. I closed my eyes and shes gone away. Your pig. Mika shes coming back. Did you leave her in a nunnery in maine, after it was going to be a nunnery but we had a last change. Going to a nunnery, willie. But well have her back next summer. Its better to keep her in maine because my mom can have her next. Why are we talking about that . When are you going to eat her . What . No shes so cute. I love her. Shes amazing but this is not the time or place wrmplgts is she . Me at a sanctuary in brooks, maine. A sanctuary for abused animals. Its a wonderful place. Willie, used as a prop, willie, for over a year. Exploited on instagram to sell mikas products. Her fashion line. Im going back to get her next summer. Im going to volunteer there. Its such an amazing place. So im not sure why were talking about it right now, but im glad we are. Because you dont like when we talk about baseball, but, willie, going back to 2011. The yankees always, i want you to know, the yankees always get us thinking, just like Charlie Brown kick the football that this is our year. You guys, everybodys injured on your team. Yes. Seriously. The batboy. On the dl. Actually has a strain. Yeah. On the dl. Everybody is. And yet you guys are going to come back and beat us, just like 2011. You were 9 1 2 games behind, september 3rd. Youve once again, got news that trap. Yeah. We dont have pitching, big problem and biggest bat, aaron judge, injured. Lot again yesterday. Red sox won yesterday. Lead is 8. 5. Safe with about 30 games left. Were hanging in for dear life for the wild card after losing to the as. Two more out this this week. Not incredible that the yankees who are still really within reach of the red sox are still within reach of a team who just had a gone on a torrent streak, in many ways historic season, and im serious. Most of your best players of injured. It is pretty extraordinary. The yankees still could win 100 games, by most standards a great season. By standard of the red sox finish about ten games behind you. If we get into a onegame playoff with the oakland as who are whoever it is, if we get into that, worried about that pitcher to send out there and count on. My god. Time to move on for sure. Enough pigs for you, mika . Its never time to move on. Honestly, joe, i think all of us really stopped this past weekend, because the magnitude of mccains funeral, i think it was so powerful, that in a way i kind of walked away from it going well, first of all it was so john mccain, the message of it. It was a salute to america and a very different gesture to the forces behind people like donald trump, who you wouldnt even want to mention in the room but you could just feel it, and yeah. For me, i kind of move on knowing, this presidency, in many ways is over. And were just getting through it, and goodness will prevail. That is a really strong statement. I think most of the Trump Administration and his supporters in the press would strongly disagree with you. One thing is for sure. You did really see representatives of americas constitutional government, republicans and democrats alike, sitting next to each other who believe in madisonian democracy, checks and balances, constitutional norms. It was extraordinary. There you see lynne cheney next to al gore. You see, of course, democratic president s next to republicans. But they came together in a building to celebrate the life of one man who defied the first president , who had contempt on those values whether talking about an independent judiciary, or checks and balances, of free press and an independent department of justice or rule of law and willie, fascinating is, i dont think Donald Trumps name was mentioned throughout the entire message but as Jonah Goldberg said in a tweet, when somebody said the entire the entire funeral was aimed at attacking President Trump, Jonah Goldberg said he thought one of the most devilish things they did to attack trump was play the battle hymn of the republic. To, to, really, to make the point, and it is true, the very values that defined john mccains life and american heroes lives for over 240 years, some Trump Supporters actually took as an insult. As a slight to a man who does not share the values that the overwhelmingly majority of people in that room shared. His name wasnt mentioned but beginning with senators daughter Meghan Mccain a rebuke of President Trump and david ig nis ignatius, its extraordinary that the sitting president was not in the room in what amounted really to a state funeral and you had two former president s, one republican, one democrat, both of whom vanquished john mccain and prevented him from becoming president and george w. Bush in 2000 and barack obama in 2008 delivering eulogies for the man. Willie, it really did have the feel of a family funeral for the american family, the values that we hold, that sometimes are hard to express were stated so clearly and pour e fwerfully bye w. Bush and barack obama and Meghan Mccain enraged and only as much as she could be as a daughter and a sense of who we are as a country, a sense of the path out of this difficult period and the path is simple. Its the values that virtually everybody in our public life at a senior position gathered together in the Washington Cathedral shares and then for the rest of the weekend we had an eruption of the problem that were dealing with with donald trump, but serm on the day of that funeral, we knew who we were as a people and we had most articulate expressions of our common values. And, joe, the remarks by president s bush and obama i thought were especially fitting and beautiful. I guess there might have been in controversy about that. Whats your take . Well, there were quite a few people that found it hypocritical, and even some saying i hate politics. That the two men that took john mccain apart on the campaign trail and said very rough things about john mccain in South Carolina and also throughout the 2008 campaign were there eulogizing him. Actually, i would kindly tell those people who were offended that youre missing the big point. Yeah. That that is the very nature of american democracy. We come together against those to fight a bigger cause, against those who weve spoken ill about and who have spoken ill of us and the greatest example of this is after the civil war. Abraham lincoln second inaugural address talking about with malice towards none after southerners rebelled and caused the deaths of over 650,000 on the battlefield. Abraham lincoln said, okay. Now we go together as one in a yoon yi with malice towards none. It is a difficult standard but it is a standard that were all going to have to follow as we move forward through this difficult time, because it is going to be a difficult time. But thats the very essence of great leadership as bill clinton said, ive said it time and time again, a great leader must have a poor memory. Thats how you move forward and get things done for the American People. Well, as the senate gets ready to hear testimony from President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, the president is busy blasting the federal Justice System for daring to prosecute his allies. The president tweeted yesterday, two longrunning obama era investigations are two very popular republican congressmen are brought to a well publicized charge just ahead of the midterms by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because theres not enough time. Good job, jeff. The Justice Department declined to caught up when asked by the New York Times. The president s claim is false in that the Insider Trading investigation of congressman cress collins stemmed from actions he is accused of taking five months after the Trump Administration began. Including messages that prosecutors say collins sent in june of 2017 while at the white house congressional picnic. A handful of republicans in congress reacted with dismay to the president s tweets. Senator sasse said it is not a twotiered system of justice. One for the Majority Party and one for the minority party. These two men are charged with crimes because of evidence not because of who the president was when the investigation began. Senator jeff flake replied, this is not the conduct of a president committed to defending an upholding the constitution but rather a president looking to use the department of justice to settle political scores. Through a spokesman Speaker Paul Ryan responded to cnn, doj should always remain apolitical and the speaker demonstrated he takes these charges seriously. Good. Willie, its its almost boring, because at this point his tweets are so unimportant, but you get a sense of where hes trying to take this. You get the sense, ben mijam witis, he views department of justice as protecting the president and not for america. So, yeah, the tweet is astonishing because it incorporates so many of his attitudes that the purpose of the Justice Department is, you know, not to do impartial justice, but to protect his friends and punish his enemies. To advantage him in elections, right . And certainly not to do something that would disadvantage his favored candidates in an election. And, you know, youd think that if he even if he believed these things hed have the decency to be a little bit ashamed of it, but hes not. And so he just says them out loud. One problem with doing that is that if you happen to be a special counsel looking for evidence of corrupt intent, its hard to get better than the president saying that the purpose of the Justice Department is to, you know, help you elect early and that the attorney general really should pony up on that score. Yeah. Thats one. You know, gene robinson, that when the president is trying for obstruction of justice at a future tie, tried for obstruction of justice. Im just a dumb lawyer but what mork that one an exhibit one. Look at the timeline, seen great lawyers, worked for great lawyers who put together trials. When they start putting together timelines and you just get your arms around all of this information, but it gets clarified when you look at the timelines and sit there and look at it on the wall and youre like oh, my lord. This is not good news for the defendant, and ive got to say, mika said something really interesting. He said, its almost boring, because weve seen this act. This is like a nostalgia act. This is elvis in 1977, you know . Sort of loafing through the hits. That we all know what hes going to say. We all know where its going to go, and it seems if he fired sessions, the senate wouldnt confirm another attorney general. So its really its just a useless threat right now. All hes doing is building the obstruction of justice case against him, and you just have to sit back and wonder in wonderment and laugh at just how ignorant he is. How many times does he have to, in public, obstruct justice before we get the message . We know about donald trump. We know who he is. We know about his corruption, we know about this craziness. His inability to exercise any sort of selfcontrol, and thats who he is. Hes unfortunately president of the United States, but thats who he is, and so you know, in one sense it does get kind of boring, because you you know, youve seen it before. Youre not surprised by it. In another sense, we have to, i think, guard against being bored by just such a clear transgression. Of course. Of any norm, and of the way our system is supposed to work. Its just really incredible, and so you can i mean, look at the future timeline. They may be able to constrain him from firing sessions before the midterm, but hes sure going to do it right after. So we should all be all be ready. I mean, this was a what a fascinating few days weve had. Because we had those two funerals which were, the Aretha Franklin funeral and john mccain funeral both sort of portraits, pageants of america. They were as american as they could be. Yeah. The america we know we live in. Absolutely. And then we have donald trump. Right. Who is this sort of alien force that has the powers of the presidency right now, and is very difficult to dislodge. Queen of soul versus the soul of america versus some sophomoric joke that pretends to be president. Got to cover it, but its over. Alover the weekend the president launched a report as the conservative watchdoing look, Judicial Watch reported friday the Justice Department admitted the Surveillance Court held no hearings on the fisa warrants targeting page. Op the same day at john mccains Funeral Service the president tweeted that saying it is astonishing that the fisa courts couldnt hold hearings on spite warrants targeting donald trump. Isnt it about carter page . Its about trump mika, this is im sorry. This is a joke we could read this, but this is so ignorant of the entire process. Yeah. Im going to just go to kasie hunt. From start to finish. From start to finish hes wrong about how this works. You know, these were republican judges. Republicans judges appointed by john roberts. You dont have hearings for these warrants. Its even Donald Trumps closest advisers, sam stein, even even they were quietly grumb grumb grumbling. This is absolute nonsense. The like attacking alex cora for not kicking a field goal at the end of the braves game. Why didnt he kick a field goal . Its a good question. This weekend had me thinking a bit. I think about how american politics is usually played between the 40 yard lines. You know, you have broad consensuses between the parties about how the country should be run. Occasionally things go really haywire. For instance, the iraq war. But by and large you stay within those 40 yard lines. What donald trump is, someone well without, outside of the 40 yard limit. Doing things dramatically different from what is the ideological sense of the party and predominantly about his view of executive power and how it should benefit the Justice Department. So i take that mikas point, you know, truthfully, about how this is getting representative and boring, but to me, the tweet about the congressman was a wholly different thing that isnt boring but far scarier than anything hes tweeted before, because it wasnt about selfinterest politically. It wasnt about protecting his own hide. It was about weaponizing the department of justice to help his political party. Correct. Thats a different step. No. Hes not hes definitely not above that. Mika, but, no i think he cant do that. Thats the thing. My fear it will actually get worse. I know everyone thinks it plays out, but what when they do potentially lose the house of representatives and he feels cornered . Suddenly its no longer a government in which he can just rest assured that the house will have his back, and republicans have his back. Now he actually has to weaponize i think it actually could get worse. Listen, heres the thing. We have proven Steve Rattner time and again, ill let you get in on all of this, but, steve, time and again we have seen donald trump make these threats. We have seen him try to do specific things and time and again have seen federal judges stand up and push back. We have seen the free press stand up and push back and yes Even Congress at times stand up and push back and if he fires Jeff Sessions he can threaten to fire sessions all he wants he know thats adds to the obstruction of Justice Charges against him and, two, the senate will not confirm anybody, especially after this fall unless there is an agreement on how Jeff Sessions leaves and another attorney general comes in that is agreed upon by the senate. Well, youve seen some rumblings and kasie can certainly talk about this. Youve seen rumblings back and forth from the senate, different republican senators, at different times over the last several weeks. At certain points theyve stood up and said Jeff Sessions is our man and other times suggested after, lindsey graham, after the midterms the president might be entitled to his own man. Well see how the midterms unfold. Obviously, democrats take back the senate, a whole other ball game. With respect to the obstruction of justice and his various commentaries seems clear in the case of the two congressmen he doesnt have a leg to stand on either as to the timing, severity of charges or appropriateness what the Justice Department did. On the fisa stuff, ben is there insight whether he has a claim or merits to what he is arguing . Yes. There is no march it wherit wha. What is a really simple one. The fisa process works, its a unique process in the federal court system, and we actually ran over the weekend a long piece by david crisp laying out the fisa prospect. Hearings, as general mat whter n a fisa judge has a concern about an application which is a normal thing, by the way, they deal with that by phone or orally or the staff attorneys for the court deal with it with the Justice Department. So it would be quite unusual to have a hearing in the accepts that the president seems to have meant it. And in any event, the relevant question whenever the Justice Department in any process goes before a court and asks for a warrant is, is the court satisfied that probable cause was established on the papers or in a live setting, not whether the president of the United States later finds it inconvenient that the warrant was issued. So i think its actually a Pretty Simple question. There is no merit whatsoever to the president s complaint. And as Andy Mccarthy has said, mika, what happens is, you go before the fisa judge and he said or any judge and says, nearly 20 years as a prosecutors ive had hundreds of warrants and never had a hearing. Had judges tell me no, or tell me i need to beef this up with an allegation or with more solid evidence, but never a hearing and thats 20 years in the Southern District of new york, and thats the way it works. And, you know, the problem is donald trump sees something on tv and he immediately in complete ignorance. The word this morning is, im not using it as a slur, its jut a reality. Just complete ignorance. Yep. Of the way the process works. Complete ignorance of our democratic republic. I actually think that so many of the i greecegregious things he in the past year and a half have to do with just complete ignorance of the constitution, complete ignorance of our form of government, complete ignorance of how washington actually runs than a maniacal plan to take over the world. Well, thats being kind. Hes just a day trader. Yeah. No. Calling somebody ignorant of the country he wants to run is not being any kinder than having a dentist decide he wants to operate an your brain. It doesnt say much. His show, joe harks gotten so boring. Its like, you read his tweets and then have to explain how the world actually works. How the law works. You know . The difference between right and wrong. Simple things like that. Kasie hunt, my bigger question is about the republicans Still Standing by trump. These small men with such weak character, in the shadow of john mccains legacy. Like, how do they do it . Ben sasse, jeff flake are leaving. One of them is leaving and ben sasse always someone able to speak his mind and speak the truth, despite what it might mean for him politically. But the question i would think at this point as you run after them down the hall is, are you really willing to go down with this ship . Can you read . The reality i think mika, is that until they see the donald trump ship sinking. It is from an electoral perspective. Im simply trying to explain the actions, not defending them, but you know, why are we even talking about this fisa warrant at all . It is exactly the point youre making which is devin nunes has been trying to carry water for the president on this and is distracts the president s base and everybody else from the real issue at hand. This came out of the House Intelligence Committee investigating russian meddling in the election, and this fisa distraction prevents us from keeping the main thing the main thing which is that interference. And to sort of tie it all together, if democrats do take back the house, i mean, this investigative power, first of all republicans will lose their ability in one of the chambers to do things like this and second of all democrats will actually start to dig in and ask real questions about everything from these Intelligence Matters to the president s tax returns, and its really not clear to me that the white house is at all prepared for that. Yeah. No. Willie, before we go to break, and just a blockbuster first block back. Yeah. Weve got everything. Going on 30 minutes now, but before we go you know, you look at the tweets and mika says theyre boring. Theyre boring in part because we have a system of checks and balances and are going to take care of this, as a republic, but also you look at it to follow his state of mind. Especially after the mccain funeral and youve just got say it aint good when he starts retweeting New York Times articles about ohr and steele that prove that theyve been going after putin even before donald trump ran for president , to prove their independence, that this wasnt some deep state conspiracy against trump. It was a focus on putin and he calls it a witchhunt. Hes angry that these guys were going after putin in 2014. It just again, the very tweet undermines his argument. Yeah. You know, on the one hand it is boring. It can be exhausting at times, but on the other hand hes the leader of the free world and president of this country and has power and position to do something about the things he brags about. He can do things about the things he claims hes going to do. So we have to keep an eye on everything he does and says, but imagine of course. Joe, sitting there looking up at the coverage of john mccains life, the life of a Great American and being angry about it . Oh, my goodness. Being resentful about it and feeling like this isnt a great moment, even just for a couple of days for country. And there you have President Trump. He knows he will never receive a funeral like that, when his day comes. And i think that makes him angry in a way that you wouldnt expect. Certainly a sitting president of the United States to feel about a Great American like john mccain. Ben witis mika, again, you have a tweet he completely misstates the facts about fisa. Again, putting a field goal into a baseball game. I mean, thats how bizarre that tweet was. And secondly, you have him quoting a New York Times article that actually undercuts every single argument he has made about where this investigation began. I know. Its incredible. Ben witis, thank you very much. Still ahead on morning joe is Jonathan Swan was noting on twitter, a big blow to breitbarts plan to the upper west side. Cancels steve bans appearance and from the magazines own staff why it may be the best thing steve bannon could have hoped for. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Oh, yeah. Making my dreams a reality takes more than just investment advice. From insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. Brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. I call it my comfortable future plan, and its all possible with a cfp® professional. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. How much more does Congress Need to see . Donald trump has now been implicated in two felony crimes, and hes all but confessed to them on fox news. No one is above the law, so we have to make sure this president doesnt use pardons to cover up crimes. If you agree that a president should not be allowed to pardon himself or his associates, join us at needtoimpeach. Com. The washington establishment doesnt have the courage to act, but the American People can. You always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed . Lets say it in a really low voice. Carl . Lowest price, guaranteed. Just stick with badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com steve bannon will no longer be attending this years new Yorker Festival after the magazine pulled back its invitation following backlash on social media and criticism from the magazines own writerss in an email to his staff he noted dismay and anger over his decision to initially invite the former trump team strategist. He said he would be open to sitting down with bannon in the future just not onstage. According to the times the initial invitation said, we would be honored to have you. Bannon responded saying he was gutless. Canning the appearance comes after several highprofile guests dropped out including judd aptile, apatow. Did David Remnick make the right call here . A wonderful labor day present for steve bannon. I they he should send flowers to judd apatow and other hollywood types that said they would not so up and show up on the stage with him. You know, willie, this is, i think a recurring problem, and id love to hear what you think. A recurring problem that liberals have. Ive seen it my whole life. Whether on College Campuses or now latenight tv. Certainly in most of american popular culture. They dont get their basic views challenged. And if steve ban werent just a fired white house guy, that would be one thing, but steve bannon is aligning himself with antidemocratic populist forces in europe. And hes now, gabe sherman in vanity fair talking how hes running an outside operation for donald trump for the 2020 reelection campaign. He is relevant. So what i would want to know as a conservative, if this were happening on the left who is this person . I would want to sit down. I want to challenge him or her and i want to defeat them with my ideas. Running and hiding youll remember this. During2016 campaign, willie. If we even suggested donald trump could win on this set the last three weeks we were bombarded with angry tweets and how dare you, you racist, you think, you that liberals cant hide their heads in the sand anymore, and thats what this is doing, and i salute David Remnick for getting a guy that most of us find objectionable. I saw him at the council on Foreign Relations years ago interview Sergey Lavrov and it was extraordinarily educational, and still shapes my views on russia. You need to listen to your opponents and learn from your opponents. And does learn where theyre going. Does anyone doubt anyone as smart and good a journalist as David Remnick would not have held his feet to the fire, held Steve Bannons feet to the fire . No question would have gotten in his face, pushed back and maybe drawn out things that hadnt been drawn out before. What he alluded to when he said im going going to do it anymore, i did plan to push bark abark back and would like to do it in another interview. Was the left going too far to the left . I said absolutely. I was equally as critical about Hillary Clinton and the problems with her candidacy as i was about Donald Trumps, and quite frankly, people are still attacking me on that like freaking out, instead of looking within and wondering what are the adjustments the left can make to prevail beyond the existence which i think a lot of people on the right may join the left to push back against trump, but then the left has to do better how they move forward. We cant assume everybody feels the same way we do. We meaning the left. Not you. Thank you. Im to the right of you at the moment on the set i. Kn. I know you are on the set. I agree what you and joe are saying. Having the other side. My university a couple years ago had ray kelly, former police chief of new york come to speak and the students basically shout the him down. Wouldnt let him speak because of stop and frisk. A terrible moment and so did the brown people. This case is a little unusual. It wasnt remnick so much canceling because he wanted to cancel. It was he lost all of his other speakers. In that position, what do you do . Joe, there is there is the tinge in this presidency and in the language thats used that feels dangerous. That the president has at times incited racism and violence and there are lines to be drawn. Well, and steve bannon, David Ignatius, has excused those racist tirades. Hes basically said that educated women are no longer needed by the republicans. Theyre gone. Just forget about them. And so theres so much that steve bannon has said. Theres so much that he believes in that conservatives like myself and liberals like mika find objectionable, but he is relevant. He is talking with Donald Trumps Campaign Staff every day. Hes leading phone calls every day, talking how to get donald trump reelected in 2020. This is not david duke losing a governors race and coming in saen second and being invited here. This is a guy who had the president s ear inside the white house during the defining moments of his white house, and is going to be running a campaign in one way or the other in 2020. Dont we want to hear what he has to say . And challenge him . Because remnick, i think he would have buried him rhetorically. Hes obviously a newsmaker. Steve bannon, in my book, is close to being the chief wrecker of the, of our international alliances. He goes after americas longtime friends and allies. Everybody who makes news is worth talking to. Just to understand where theyre coming from. Whats unfortunate shehere is t invitation was extended. Whether it was necessary to talk to steve bannon, had cass decided yes, and then to be forced out of that by his colleagues, other guests and rescind the invitation is what steve bannon will make a field day out of. We want to make sure places you gather are places to have free debate. Are these people so extreme, are they so dangerous to the country that as the common phrase is now, you shouldnt normalize them by asking them at all. If thats the case, dont get this process started, David Remnick should have had a better discussion with his staff and with the guests before extending the invitation. Gene robinson, youve been around the News Business a couple of years. Whats your idea on this . Good idea to sit down with steve bannon in that forum . I think not, actually. Look, ive known David Remnick for 30 years. Hes one of the greatest journalists ive ever known. Hes amazing. You know, i think this has ended up being an owned goal. You dont have to invite steve bannon to the new Yorker Festival. You can interview steve bannon in a journalistic setting. You can do it on video if you want to preserve the record. There are lots of ways can you interview steve bannon, but this what david chose was a way that really upset his staff and really upset his contributors, and really upset the other participants. So, no. As was said, he didnt actually have a choice after the reaction. He wasnt going to have a festival if he had steve bannon. I think the error here, the basic error was as David Ignatius said. No perhaps consulting a bit more widely before deciding to include bannon in this forum in this way, which obviously, and i think he would admit, he did admit it was mistake. Still ahead since taking office President Trump has politicized the nfl and repeatedly criticized players for kneeling during the national anthem. We could see among the attack again today. 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Maybe you shouldnt be in the country. You have to stand proudly for the national anthem. Youre proud of our country. Youre proud of our history, and unlike the nfl, you always honor and cherish our Great American flag. [ cheers ] President Trump is just one of the off the field factors that has forced the National Football league to go from being one of most unifying institutions in america to possibly the countrys most polarizing sports brand, and joining us now, chief National Correspondent for the New York Times magazine, mark leibovich. Two days before the nfl kickoff, mark is out with a new book. What a coincidence, the timing. Big game the nfl and dangerous times. You didnt plan it. He asks this question, are we witnessing the nfls last gasp as the great skeptical of American Life . Are we . You, nike and Colin Kaepernick got together with a with the release of your new book. We learned that nike is going to use Colin Kaepernick as the face of its brand writing, believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. This is the 30th anniversary of the just do it slogan. Colin kaepernick is still continuing to make news this season. How big of a problem and how clumsy has the nfl been in dealing with the kneeling issue . Big. The nfl has not dealt with this issue. There was policy, there was backlash, they flipflopped, and then you have a vacuum where nobody took a stand. We are trying to work out the policy. It may not happy the season. Meanwhile, you have the president filling the vacuum, nike filling the vacuum. People are outspoken on this. And you have a Division Just continuing. And thats the thing about football and big game it is just division. And obviously, trump drives into that and that is what were seeing here. But trump, by the time donald trump is elected president , this is already a diminishing brand. They are making billions and billions of dollars, but we spent probably the first five or six weeks of the season several years ago about their clumsy handling of ray rice beating up his wife, having the surveillance video, slapping him on the wrist while some guy who smoked a joint was banned for six months. And, you know, i grew up, im sure like you, like willie and the other people, i had nfl chalkboards, i had nfl bed sheets as a kid. I had nfl posters all over my room. I lived for sundays. Now kids dont watch it. We watch baseball. Why is that happening . Not just with my family, but why is that happening across america . Yeah, thats a great question. The nfl is very worried about that family. And families like it all over the country. I mean, it is true, sunday used to be a real like the secular holiday of the United States. Now its plus, six or seven years solid theres been one dumb selfinflicted wound every single year. To some degree, you have the offfield reality show that fills a lot of airwaves, people talk about it, but on the ore hand, the focus gets less on the game, it becomes more of the culture war issue. And one of the reasons i wanted to jump into the game now is because i wanted to escape from politics. I wanted a fun carnival. And you realize by watching the tease here, theres no escaping politics. Football always sold itself as an escape. We are an escape from the daily troubles, its domestic violence, its your health, and now with the president theres no escape at all. The nfl is like a swamp. And in addition to the political stuff, you have health and safety issues that the nfl doesnt seem to be addressing. And then in a forthright way. Im assuming that is turning off fans as well. Yes, from the existential standpoint, theres a whole generation of people who used to play football. I dont think football is dying any time soon, but youre seeing a different type of support. Having said all that, this is a really fun book. Like jumped in. Is it an escape or not . Mark, did the nfl use the word existential correct . Does the nfl view the problems it has as existential, you put all these things together, declining ratings, do say see an existential problem . Not at all. They would never use a word like that. These are very shortsided individuals. And by and large, one of the things i found, there are a lot of similarities between washington and the nfl. There are a lot of complacency. Theres a sense it will go on forever. A lot of very bold and pretty selfserving Service Interest people running it. The middle class owners are 70 at this point. By the way, they are worth 3 billion. So its a very the dynamic is very shortsided. And words like existential dont bleed in because that is like a 10 to 20year problem. Who cares about that . Sam stein has a question. I was going to jump on what Steve Brenner said. We have come to learn the severity of the physical damage that these players endure. The brain injuries alone is horrific when you think about it, but you watch the nfl games and it is just one sort of limb being disjointed and another. At some point its a turnoff. For me, the nfls inability to get their hands on dealing with that is a real problem. And i want to know what you think, do the owners recognize they have to be and certain management in the nfl have to be a bit more circumspect act that, they have to get their head around that . If you look at how the nfl treats its players, it is not nearly as generous how the mlb treats its own players. Right. And the mlb players are not risking their longterm health to a degree. Nowhere near, i dont think it is at all. When you talk about the nfl wrapping its head around the issues, they think that in terms of the liability, i mean, are we going to get sued . Is there a golden killing episode that this affects us with . Can we do a p. R. Campaign around this . How do we convince people and tell them we are focused on this . You hear this over and over again. Beyond that, you dont have a sense that maybe at the margins they can improve safety with the helmets or a rule change, but ultimately this is football is not going to be safe at any speed any time soon and the aware sns catness is catching u. This is a game that i got into. The players are too big and fast. When they collide, its like a car accident happening. This is not the game i played. And you have seen two players collide, especially helmet to helmet, and it makes you sick because you know, mark, the permanent damage that is being inflicted there. Yeah, its true. But what is interesting, joe, is when you go out in the country and talk to people about football, there was a lot of overlap that i found when you talk to people about politics. And you talk to people about football. It is a culture war. You have the heartland of football, which is the heartland of trump, the ohio pennsylvania alabama, the football belt of america. They feel the attacks on football and the ways to make it safer is in the same way that Donald Trumps supporters feel the attacks on them and their way of life are threatening to what they care about. I mean, something essential is being taken away. So in a sense, theres a make America Great again component to the people defending football against sort of the Progressive Forces on the coast. All right. Mark i think youre probably right in ohio. But yankee boy, we watch a different kind of football boy. Who are you calling yankee boy . Who is my protein . The atlanta falcons. They were the only team in the south. They had the falcons and then the saints. And if you were from the south, you were a falcon fan or a saint fan. I have chosen the falcons and have suffered ever since. So mika, by the way, a lot of grim news about the nfl and just this program note, some of the best nfl this fall right here on nbc. Be sure to check local listings for times in your area, some thursday and sunday nights. The sunday night wrapup, the best in the business. Okay. Ahead of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court mom knee Brett Kavanaugh. Senator brian schatz tweeted, they just transmitted 42,000 documents to the senate on kavanaugh and the hearings start tomorrow. Most senators read around 1,500 pages per hour. So all good. Well talk to senator Sheldon White house of the judiciary committee. And Rudy Giuliani once said bob mueller would wrap the obstruction part of the russia investigation by september. And its september. And the president is still providing the special counsel with possible new evidence of obstruction. Morning joe is coming right back. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, donald j. Trump, do solemnly swear. I, donald j. Trump, do solemnly swear to take the office of the president of the United States. To take the office of the president of the United States. To preserve, detect and defend last year, donald trump swore an oath to preserve to protect and defend the nations system of laws. Yesterday he suggested the Justice Department should not bring charges to republicans because they were running to office. Yesterday he criticized the u. S. Intelligence community for trying to recruit informants inside a hostile foreign regime. And, of course, that regime was russia. Welcome back to morning joe, tuesday, september 4th. We have steve radnor, politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein, and capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie d. C. , kasie hunt, and yEugene Robinson, mark leibovich, and republican strategist steve schmidt. Also with us, an nbc justice security analyst, matt miller. So much to get to this morning. What a great panel, joe. Oh, incredible panel. We have so much to talk about. Im just curious, i want to ask mark leibovich, we were talking about the nfl before, the new Yorker Festival, they invite steve bannon, disinvite steve bannon, what is your take on that . I think look, it is stunning the way these theres like a cycle here, it is sort of amazing they did this. To begin with, they could see the backlash. I do think once you have invited someone, you should probably just stick with it, especially if you couldnt have seen this coming. But look, its unfortunate and probably good that they get out of it quickly. It is great for steve bannon. Im sure he will take this as a great badge of honor and well be hearing a lot from him on this topic over the next few days. Steve schmidt, let me ask steve really quickly, steve, you and i have spent some time being critical of this president and those around this president , but at the same time, you were one of the few people along with willie, mika and myself that suggested that donald trump might win. You saw it coming. And you saw it coming very early. And that angered a lot of people on the left. They didnt want to confront the reality, the ugly reality, that was in front of them. When you see Something Like this happen, i think rimnich doing the right thing, lets talk to this guy to see what makes him tick and challenge him in public. And then the left goes crazy on twitter and he is disinvited. Do you fear that many on the left may be repeating the same mistake that they would rather live in a bubble with their heads in the sand than confront the ugliness that stands before them . Well, joe, i think steve bannon is a crack pot, his ideas are mamalignant, but the regression of europe in america, the assault on small liberal values, i have seen many times on our air that fascism did not grow in the 1930s because it was strong but because democracy was weak. And Steve Bannons ideas should be confronted, publicly, directly, that the repudiation of Steve Bannons ideas should not come from shunning an invitation where he doesnt get to speak but through a process where through interrogatories hes held to account for what he believes. And it can be disassembled. So we are in a moment in this country where our values, the ideas and ideals of the country are under constant assault from a president of the United States who is utterly fakeless to the oath of office he took who is unraveling the u. S. Led liberal global order that existed from conception by fdr and truman through barack obama and we need to talk about it. We need to face it headon in the public square. We need to confront bannonism, not hide from it or pretend it doesnt exist. But to face it directly in the power of the american ideal, the american idea, i think, is so great that steve bannon will shrink and disappear like the witch from the wizard of oz who has water put on it and melts. I dont disagree at all. And by the way, as we try to get to the news this morning, its all related. We dont chase every trump tweet, its impossible. Its getting boring. But as the senate gets ready to hear testimony from President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, the president is blasting the federal Justice System for daring to prosecute his allies. The president tweeted yesterday, two longrunning obamaer rar investigations of two very republican congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge just ahead of the midterms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job, jeff. The Justice Department declined to comment when asked by the New York Times. The president s claim is false in that the Insider Trading investigation of Chris Collins stemmed from actions he is accused of taking five months after the Trump Administration began. Including messages that prosecutors say collins sent in june of 20717 while he was at the white house congressional picnic. Matt miller, is this tweet more concerning than all the others . What is your take . Yeah, i do this is one of the most damning tweets the president has sent since taking office. Some people rally behind him, some people are offended by him but they quickly disappear. This one will have a lasting effect we will see, both damning in the president s intent and the Justice System. We have seen this before what he thinks of the Justice Department existing to protect him and go after his political enemies. Now we see that extent to the entire Republican Party. He thinks the Justice Department is basically the instrument of a tenpot desk bed in a Banana Republic. Thats how they use the Law Enforcement systems. And you cant forget about the effect here. Both members of congress are under indictment. And unless they change course are going to face trial. They will be injuries selected juries selected in the republican districts. And the president retains popularity there and told the jury pools the two members of congress were treated unfairly. You ran the him taking the oath of office, hes required to faithfully execute the laws of this country. And here he is undermining his own Justice Department as they try to do that. Right. Joe . And you also, matt, you have, again, the complete ignorance of history. You can go back during the bush administration, the department of justice, went after republican politicians during the abramoff hearings. You had under barack obama, you had them not only going after republican virginia georgia, but also going after a new jersey democratic senator in an important vote. I just wonder, again, the net effectiveness in the long run, it seems to me, the only real effectiveness in the long run is, again, just helping Robert Mueller put together an obstruction of justice charge against donald trump. That along with the firing of Jeff Sessions, it seems that all donald trump is doing with these tweets is hes getting the gun, hes pulling it out, hes aiming at his big toe and shooting at it repeatedly. Yeah, thats right. Look, i dont know what more evidence we would need of the president s corrupt intent when it comes to his interactions with the Justice Department. We have seen over and over again reports of what he says privately about Jeff Sessions, what he says privately to Jeff Sessions and other members of the Justice Department, what he said to andy mccabe before he was dismissed, and we see him openly calling for the Justice Department on twitter to do inappropriate things. With respect to this tweet, it is interesting because it is not just ability the obstruction of justice investigation that he already faces, he already is facing obstruction of justice investigation for trying to end investigations into himself and his campaign. This is kind of an obstruction of justice writ large where hes just asking the Justice Department to never bring cases against members of the Republican Party as hes asked before to bring cases against Hillary Clinton in the democratic party. I think, in a way, its larger than any particular obstruction of justice case and it goes to his fitness to serve in office and the way he sees the Justice Department and the way he wants to organize the Justice Department and how he would expect Jeff Sessions successor, if he fires him, how we expect him to lead the Justice Department. Lets bring in democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse. He served as a palbearer at the memorial for senator john mccain. Senator, good morning, great to have you with us. I want to talk to you about that moving day on saturday, but first, youre on the judiciary committee, your reaction to the president s tweet, the latest reminder that he views the Justice Department as an institution there as something to protect him. You have to remember that this Campaign Began with mob chants of lock her up. So they got off to a really bad start with respect to how the Justice System is supposed to work. And this is just another, i get, ominous whiff of the general justice this guy seems to like. In which the Justice System is not blind, does not go forward based on evidence, that goes forward based on politics and the welfare and wishes of the president of the United States. To any former prosecutor, it is just disgusting. Do you see, senator, in that tweet an obstruction of justice . You may move to a proceeding that was being obstructed. I certainly think that it could be evidence of obstruction of justice once youve got to defining which entity of the Justice System is being obstructed. So senator, you also will be seated in a couple hours ago in the initial hearing for judge kavanaugh, Brett Kavanaugh, the president s appointee for the Supreme Court, what is the first question you would like to ask him . Well, i dont want to telegraph that, but i do think that what youre going to see is a lot of boiling mad democrats on the judiciary committee. There has been a real Banana Republic process that has gotten here. Those of us who are lawyers think the obvious comparison is to the discovery process in a trial. Imagine one party in a trial telling the other party, well, youre due all this discovery, but were only giving you 10 to 15 of it. And were going to make a rule to not talk about that publicly. And now they have complained this phony executive privilege, it is not a proper assertion of executive privilege, and last night after the close of business on the last day of the Holiday Weekend, we got a document dump of 42,000 pages of documents. The idea that any judge in the United States could go forward with a trial a day after a document Donald Truump like tha preposterous. And they are so desperate to jam this guy to the court. So the ultimate question here is, why are they so desperate to jam this guy onto the court . Well, senator, why would democrats even show up at a hearing that you talk about a Banana Republic. Im sorry if they dump 42,000 documents on you on labor day when they know youre not going to be able to review them after you all have been asking for the documents for weeks. You have been asking for full transparency for weeks. You know that the republicans in the senate have been doing everything they can to muddy up the process as much as possible. Why do democrats even show up today . It seems because theres a better forum to make the case. Because americans would understand if you say, you know what . We just got the documents, we will show up on wednesday. Were going to read the documents and not let you steamroll over us. Thats one way to go at it. I think for most of us, the feeling is that this is an opportunity to make the case. People have not been paying attention to this so far about what is going on. They have been paying attention to the ceremonies honoring john mccain, they have been paying attention to the president s tweets. This is a chance for us to really make that case hard at a moment when the American Public is looking at this botched process. Kacie . Senator, to pick up on joes point, you call this a Banana Republic process, thats a pretty serious allegation. Would you view his position on the court as illegitimate if hes confirmed . Well, we need to go through the hearings, but i think that he is a person who could stop all this nonsense in a minute by saying, im not going to take the oath of office if i dont go through a legitimate process as a judge. I know hes never tried a case, but hes still been a judge. And he aught to know something about discovery. You aught to know the last minute document dumps are wrong. You aught to know the people responsible for providing discovery dont get to give 10 of it or 12 of it and keep the rest. And he aught to be sending a signal as somebody who is supposed to represent justice on the court. Look, im not putting up with this. This is being done for my benefit, im blowing a whistle on it. So the fact hes come police it in this way is going to be a lasting tag on him. Sam stein. Senator, if theres no Committee Confidential and you believe this is illegitimate, why not put out the 42,000 documents yourself . You can post them online. Doesnt the public deserve to see the same documents . Thats one way we could proceed. I think that so far the decision has been made to not release it all at this point. But we may very well do that. So i dont understand, im hearing from a lot of frustrated progressives who do follow this very closely. They hear you guys say this is illegitimate, they hear you note that the president is under a coconspirator crime with an investigation going on, this shouldnt proceed. Yet the democrats on the committee are not taking the most aggressive steps, they are not stepping out of the hearing as joe illustrated and not releasing the documents that are supposedly Committee Confidential. What is the disconnect here . Why are you guys not fighting this more aggressively if you think this is such an existential threat . Because, i cant speak for others, but i think the Committee Process is the best place to make these points. I dont think americans frankly respect people very much who walk out of their jobs when theres a fight to be had. And i think its important we take this forum and have that fight. Other people disagree and i think thats a very fair disagreement. Im not criticizing them. But my feeling is when theres a fight in front of you, go have it. All right. Sheldon whitehouse, greatly appreciate you being with us. Thank you. Sam. I want to go back to you on that point, i dont understand why the democrats are showing up. They have been talking about this lack of transparency from the very beginning. They fire on the committee. One of the most important things that came before my committee in my career, which is this kavanaugh appointment, which could fundamentally alter the balance of the Supreme Court for the next generation, and the republicans refuse to be transparent about it. You know, i would certainly recommend everybody around me not show up for the hearing because, as they said, you know, they think its like a Banana Republic, if they think they have been lied to, if they think the documents have been kept from them, they did a document dump on labor day, 42,000 documents. You dont participate in a process that is that flawed. You review the documents and say, were going to review the documents and we will see you on wednesday or thursday. Oh, yeah. Its not just the 42,000, there was 100,000 documents held for president ial privilege. That was a stunt on friday of Labor Day Weekend that was a news stump as well. It just goes to the fact that when it comes to judicial mom n nominations in the federal courts, the two parties are playing entirely different ball games. The republicans as youll recall just didnt take a hearing on garland. They didnt told the hearing and waited eight months and floated the idea of holding the Supreme Court seat open having eight members in the Supreme Court for Hillary Clintons presidency. This was a thing that was discussed. It wasnt just ted cruz. John mccain actually discussed the idea for a while. And democrats, you could say to their credit or to their detriment, depending on your vantage point, just played differently. They are engaged in the process with respecting the norms, and they feel like they should go at this flu those processes. And they are aggressively attacking kavanaugh and will sit in the hearing room today and tomorrow asking pointed questions to ultimately let the process move forward. Gene robinson, when the documents were dumped last night, senator schumer said they couldnt possibly process this. The hearing will start in about two hours from now. And at the end of the day despite the announcement on friday of Labor Day Weekend that the white house will withhold documents during the judge Kavanaugh Hearing, the republicans have the votes here. They have the votes and theyre going to cram this through. Just as a chiropractpractical m have 42,000 documents the day before the hearing, i agree with joe, i dont understand why the president would show up under these circumstances, but if you plan to show up and plan to fight the fight that senator whitehouse referred to, put them on the internet. Put the 42,000 documents on the internet for discovery. Lets go through these. Thats sort of 2018 way of dealing with this sort of thing that wasnt available before. But i guarantee, theres enough lawyers out there and people knowledgeable about this stuff who would be happy to pore through the 42,000 documents faster than you can imagine. And find out what is in it. So there are a lot of its more than one sort of remedy that i think the democrats could have taken here, that theyre just not availing themselves of. I dont understand why. Steve schmidt, maybe it is because we are two former republicans and think about this differently, but if somebody comes to, you know, a legislative fight with a club, im going to make sure my clubs bigger or im carrying something more politically lethal, but the democrats here just seem to be sort of lying down and taking it. You dont allow these sort of document dumps the day before the most important Supreme Court nomination fight in vent american history. You take other steps. But it seems the democrats are just quietly marching in line here. Listening to senator whitehouse, whom i have a lot of respect for, it seems that the democrats are absolutely determined to bring butter knives to every gunfight forever. And i dont understand it. But ill tell you this, i ran two Supreme Court confirmations when i was in the Bush White House for chief Justice Roberts and justice alita. Had we dumped 42,000 documents the night before the hearing in that time and era, those hearings would not have gone forward. And there are two fundamental issues here. And i like Brett Kavanaugh. He was a white house colleague. And the truth of this is, we step outside the demagoguery around it, its the same guy that marco rubio or Chris Christie or the mainstream republicans would have appointed. And i say this as somebody who supported Justice Sotomayor and keegan, that the president s should appoint Supreme Court justices within the broad stream of american juris prude nrnce. Merrick garland was not given the hearings that he was appointed to have by the president of the United States reelected with the majority of the vote in 2012. And so when we look at this hearing, not to mention since he was nominated with the Michael Cohen indictment, essentially what we have is the president of the United States criminally is an unindicted coconspirator here. And so the legitimacy is fundamentally in question. This process is profoundly broken. And the idea that the democrats would say, and the argument, it makes no sense that, well, we have a right to see these documents but were not going to release them to the American People when they could release them to the American People. Its just extraordinary. And i dont understand what the political strategy to win the fight is. I mean, what is the question to a democrat who said, what is your plan . Give me any conceivable scenario how you stop this guy from getting on the Supreme Court. And i dont think they can answer the question. So its a fight with a predetermined outcome that they lose before they started. I say this as a former republican, you a former republican strategist, i dont i do not understand what these democrats are thinking. I dont understand their lack of fight. I dont understand how they allow an illegitimate this process is illegitimate. It started illegitimately. As you said, with Merrick Garland. And now matt mill er miller, th republicans have basically hidden 150,000 documents from democrats that they have been begging for over the past several weeks. No judge in america would allow an Opposing Side to dump 150,000 documents on another party in a lawsuit. The day before hearings started or a trial is started. Im completely baffled. Why do democrats why are they even showing up . They should not show up. They should hold a press conference and they should publicly with cameras on them go through the 42,000 documents they just got yesterday and the 100,000plus documents they get on the friday before Labor Day Weekend. Have the cameras come into the room. Have them review the documents. Let americans see that theyre actually trying to figure out what facts are relevant before they appoint a guy to a lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court. A guy who may overturn roe. A guy who may overturn a variety of very important precedents to this country. You know, joe, theres not just a split between democrats in washington and the grassroots on this question as sam was eluding to, theres also a split among democrats in the senate, especially on the judiciary committee. You can hear some of the discomfort in Sheldon Whitehouses voice when you asked why they dont release the documents, sam asked him the question, why dont you release the documents . Well, the decision has been made, the passive voice to answer the question. There are a number of democrats on the committee, senator whitehouse, senator blumenthal, senator harris, who i think would take a more aggressive approach. The Ranking Member of that committee, senator feinstein, has been less aggressive on this question on this issue, less aggressive on some of the other questions of corruption inside the Trump Administration. Shes been less aggressive in taking on the chairman chuck grassley. And i think, look, democrats kind of arrange themselves by seniority because shes the Ranking Member and the lead democrat, senator feinstein has a great deal of discretion on how democrats prosecute this case. And i dont want to put all the blame on her, but i do think theres a group of democrats on that committee. If you strap if you strap senator whitehouse down and gave him a chance to say, what would you do . Would you walk out of this committee and do that . I think he would say yes and thats not what the leadership of the committee wants to do. Matt miller, thank you very much. Mark leibovich, the process should be followed but you cant really follow a process when you get documents, 42,000 pages or more, the night before. And it seems like some democrats were against this before they even had a chance to look. Yeah, i think the sort of macro lesson here, i think, is essentially whatever Party Controls the senate can do whatever they want. The Merrick Garland decision kind of ensured that. I mean, that sort of is what is going on, it doesnt mat who are the president is, does anyone doubt for a second that somehow the democrats get control of the senate and theres a Supreme Court opening say next year or something, like that seat is not going to sit open for two years or a year and a half. Thats just sort of the way these things go. And i completely agree with matt miller, when listening to senator whitehouse, i heard the same possessive ty. You need a tactic to put the documents on the internet. Ultimately, its the control and the norm of the judicial appointments that unfortunately these are becoming. Reporter mark leibovich, thank you very much for being on. Your book comes out today. And what happens in the coming months will depend on what happens everywhere else. We have our reporters spread coast to coast. And well start with three of the battlegrounds next on morning joe. Directv gives you more for your thing. If youve been waiting for a sign to quit cable, then heres some signs. It came from the toaster. Now you can quit cable. Switch to directv, for 1 rated Customer Satisfaction over cable. More for your quitting cable thing. Thats our thing. Call 1 800 directv. Oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. Last year donald trump swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the nations system of laws. We saw that during his inauguration and then i dont think we saw that anymore. Joe . It is really unbelievable. We have been talking about it all morning. One of the disconnects i have seen, mika, is donald trump made the oath to protect and defend the con City Institution of the United States. We have seen him violate that day in and day out, time and time again, and yet if you go through the verbates of a lot of polls, you dont hear them talking about the department of justice or mueller. Theyre talking about the sorts of things voters have always talked about, and those are sort of the bread and butter issues of how am i doing . How is the economy doing . Can i afford to send my second kid to school . And can i afford to pay my rent every two weeks . And i think that is going to be what is going to be so interesting as we go into the Midterm Elections, how much of a focus is there going to be on the issues that so many people in the media are so focused on, for good reasons. Im not so sure there is going to be a great focus among voters on that as much as saying the economy. No, and going into break, what happens in washington will depend on what happens everywhere else and how people are feeling. Were kicking off the Midterm Elections season with live reporting from key battlegrounds. Joining us now in miami beach, florida, nbc correspondent jacob soberoff, in milwaukee, wisconsin, vaughan hilliard, and in biloxi, mississippi, nbc news correspondent katie beck. We have been looking at the battlegrounds and seeing how people really feel. We sure will. And jacob, lets start with you. If tim russert were here today, i do not like to put the words in great mens mouth, but if tim russert were here today, i have a feeling he would say 2018s midterms, were going to all be encapsulated by what happened in florida, florida, florida. You have the hottest Gubernatorial Race in florida. Already you have racist overtone there. You have probably the most Competitive Senate race between the sitting governor and bill nelson. I mean, florida is going to have it all this fall. Reporter its going to be the epicenter, joe. I have to say, you hit the nail on the head. So often we were here last week for that stunning primary election victory of Andrew Gillum against ron desantis who he will faceoff against in the fall. And the conversation has been how florida is a microcosm of bigger national issues, but we are not hearing about russia. Were not hearing about, you know, the investment age, and were not hearing the names comey or mueller. Were hearing about the economy, were hearing about jobs here and about how the environment ties to all of that. After the election victory last tuesday, we decided to sort of set off against south florida for the rest of the week and went all over the place from here in miami where we heard people talking about jobs and the cubanamerican community, we went down to the everglades to hear from two fisherman, two democrat, one republican, how the toxic algae dieoff are connected to the environment and how this is critical. And we went down to big pine key and talked to somebody who survived Hurricane Irma and is still struggling to get back on his feet. He said he doesnt trust a word that comes out of politicians mouths from either party. And that really is the biggest issue, the biggest challenge, getting people to come out to vote in the first place in the Midterm Election where people are so distrustful of politicians. You know, the candidates are going to make their cases, again, on all the big issues, but the economy over and over again is the one that we keep hearing about because its how people survive at the end of the day. There you go, jacob, thank you. Vaughan hilliard in wisconsin where the ongoing nafta negotiations are major issues for voters there. Vaughan, what are you hearing . Reporter yeah, good morning, guys. It is not just wisconsin but you have the likes of michigan, ohio, iowa, when we have been around over the last three months during the summer during this trade war talking to voters, what we have constantly dating back to early june was give the president time. He needs the time, he needs the ability to openly negotiate with the countries. And the interesting conversation here over the weekend we had with folks was the number of individuals that told us, look, the president just came up with a trade deal with mexico. And it is not dissimilar from what we heard a month ago when the president said he had created deal to begin conversations with the eu. Of course, neither of those are actual deals. They still have to be negotiated and still have to get congressional approval, but theres a hope in the president that is still out there across the board from voters. And when you talk to them, they repeat what the president said. The president has said, hes called tariffs the greatest exclamation point and consistently said despite here in wisconsin, look, you have the cranberry industry hit by tariffs. You have dairy, you have the likes of Harley Davidson just a few blocks down the road that is already seeing up to 55 million in losses in the announcement they are moving some of their manufacturing overseas, but what we have heard consistently is that hope in the president and to give the boss the chance. Whether that is enough in the slim margin states is going to be the question well be looking at the next few months. Well, lets move over to katie beck in mississippi where the focus is on whether africanamerican voters can send a democratic candidate to the senate. Katie, what did you find . Reporter mika, a democrat hasnt won a statewide election here in mississippi in more than three decades. So this is going to be an uphill battle. That being said, democrats are more motivated than ever seeing a rarely open senate seat as a possibility for opportunity. Democrats are running former congressman mike espy for the former senate seat vacated earlier this time by republican thad cochran. Expect a nationalstyle campaign, hell do a fullcourt press and hell be eagerly seeking the votes of africanamerican voters. Here in mississippi, all eyes are still on what happened in alabama. And that special election last december. What sent doug jones to washington, a lot of people believe was the historic turnout of black voters. And obviously the strategists here working for espy are thinking if we can turn out the same voting bloc, that making up 37 of the electorate in mississippi, then perhaps we can have an outcome and take the seat back. Mika . Already, catie beck, vaughan hilliard, jacob sob zrks zrks soberhoff, thank you. If you are in the area and want to watch the show live, go to our website for information on how to get tickets. Also that day, joe and i will be doing an event with jon meacham on the state of jump limb. A journalism. Who better to talk about that than the soul of america himself. Well have that event. Theres the caveat to that. What is the caveat . The state of journalism during the french and indian war. But you have to dig deep, but it will be, i think, the kids will they may stay away in five minutes. Where do you get tickets to that . Visit mississippitoday. Org. Joe, it should be fun. It is all very, very exciting. As a former meridian mississippi kid whose first football memories were archie who, i cant wait to go back. Steve radnor, lets talk about politics a second. You do not hear about russia. You do not hear about mueller. You do not hear about the breaching of constitutional norms. A lot of extraordinarily important things that we all need to keep our eyes on. But you dont hear that much when youre talking to voters. Youre about the economy. On that front, and on the front of even these trade wars. It seems that donald trump is ringing the right bells with his base. And heck, we may have a pretty explosive rate of growth for the Third Quarter as far as gdp goes. So how do you think that factors into the election this fall . First of all, theres no question that the economy from the macro point of view is doing pretty well. And theres no question that the voters are giving donald trump some credit or at least that of his Approval Rating of the handling of the economy is at 50 . Thats one of the highest Approval Ratings going through the categories. Its giving him some support in what some would say is a difficult position presumably. Then the trade wars which cut both ways, of course, if you are a Harley Davidson worker, you are not so happy about it. If youre a car worker, you may be a little more happy about it because the nafta deal could bring more jobs back. Thats a fairly local issue to cut both ways. Thursdayly, you have the fact that the average worker still has not seen a pay increase after you adjust for inflation. Gasoline prices are going up, pay is not going up any faster. So what is in peoples pocketbooks isnt any better. Then when you look at the Political Races or the cook report and how they rate the congressional races, whether you want to look at polling data and the generic ballot, the advantage the democrats seem to have at the moment is so much greater than what you would expect in an academy of this strength economy of this strength, even though it is not talked about, what is going on in the white house, the way trump is running his presidency, seems to be having an effect on voters. Steve schmidt, a Strong Economy doesnt always mean that the party in power in the white house wins elections. 1994, republicans won despite bill clinton and joined a Strong Economy. 2006, the same with george w. Bush. Democrats won big that year. It could happen again in 2018. But do you see any signs that democrats and the media and the political world may be surprised again that donald trump and the Republican Party far outpaces expectations and they overperform and maybe everybody wakes up the day after to find that donald trump and the republicans are still running washington. I certainly wouldnt if i was a democratic strategist working on the races in washington, d. C. I wouldnt take it for granted that democrats are going to take back the house or going to win the senate. The reality here is that since 1900, the last 100 years, theres been three elections where the incumbent party picked up seats. Last time was in 2002. So structurally, republicans go into this election with a headwind. Look, the economy is doing fine. The president has a 60 disapproval level. Thats because we have watched this reality show for two years as a nation. We have seen the vileness, the corruption, the meanness and cruelty. And i think people are sick of it. And i think the economy but steve, people saw that during the 2016 race. And Hillary Clinton thought that she could make that race about Donald Trumps character. It didnt matter. Access hollywood didnt matter. Russia didnt matter, none of it mattered at all. Donald trump won anyway. And it was just a micro he attacked a gold star mob. And he still won. If you took a bunch of us who have won and run president ial campaigns, we looked at the poll numbers for donald trump and Hillary Clinton, you gave us truth seer resume and we didnt know the names of the candidates. Everyone who looked at the numbers would say, neither of these people could conceivably be nominated to president of the United States. When two kaecandidates who are elected run against each other, one of them will win. Donald trump losing the poplar vote by 3 million votes is elected president. This was not a this election in 2018, i think, is a referendum on trumpism. And the American People have an opportunity to repudiate it. And repudiate, i think, they will. Fundamentally, the question on the ballot in the midterms is this. If you want to live in trumpistan, vote for the republicans. If you want to continue to live in america, a nation of a rule of law, dee centuricy, civility matter, your only choice is to vote for the democrats. When you look at the polls, 60 of the country doesnt want to live in trumpistan, they want to live in america. 35 to 40 are perfectfully content to hand it over to the cult personality, but i dont think thats a mar joejority of country, but well see. Next hour, well look at the major issues at play this november. Well go to missouri to see how they are playing with vulnerable red state republicans. And to arizona, a favorite punching back for President Trump. Also coming up, the president warns syria and its allies, russia and iran, against attacking a rebel stronghold in syria. But what happens if they call his bluff . Well talk about that straight ahead. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. People who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams theyre handing us more than mail theyre handing us their business and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you takes more than just investment advice. From insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. Brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. I call it my comfortable future plan, and its all possible with a cfp® professional. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. Find your certified financial planner™ professional the difference you feel is a night. And day. You fall asleep cooler. Stay asleep longer. And wake up feeling better than ever. Thats the tempurpedic difference. Experience the most highly recommended bed in america. During our labor day sales event, purchase a tempur luxe, elite, or breeze mattress and enjoy up to 550 off. Or get a Free Adjustable base upgrade. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com. President trumps last Labor Day Weekend tweet was about syria. He wrote this. President Bashar Al Assad of syria must not recklessly attack idlib province. The russians and the iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this tragedy. Hundreds of thousands could be killed. Dont let it happen. Idlib is the last province remaining under rebel control and assads regime is expected to prepare a new offensive to regain that area. An estimated three million civilians live in idlib. Joining us former under secretary of state for Political Affairs and policy coordinator on north korea, ambassador wendy sh sherman. Her new book is titled not for the faint of heart. Ambassador, great to have you with us. Congratulations on the book. We will dig into that in a moment. Just your reaction to the president s tweet and iran and russia . For President Trump to talk about the humanitarian disaster in syria when he hasnt cared about human beings anywhere in the world is a little bit ridiculous. There is no doubt that there is going to be a blood bath in idlib. We should all be concerned about it. There is a blood bath going on yemen next door. The administration has really done nothing about that. Were talking about a president who separated little children under the age of five, teenagers, young kids, from their parents at the border of this country and really doesnt care about human beings. Here is a red line this president is drawing. So what if, as you say, iran and russia cross it . Whats the consequence of drawing that red line . There is no doubt the russians and iranians are going to cross that line in support of Bashar Al Assad and President Trump is going to do nothing about it. We know laying out red lines is a dangerous game for a president. It cost president obama, with whom i was proud to work. It is going to cost this president , too. He has crossed so many red lines as you all have been discussing all morning. Joe. Isnt it important though, madam ambassador, that the president of the United States, whoever it is, does try to stand in the way of russia and iran, moving forward even more in syria . Absolutely we should stand in front of it. It is sort of amazing that President Trump pulled out of the joint conference of plan of action, the deal that kept iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon, because as horrible as things are in the middle east iran with a Nuclear Weapon will be able to project power and deter our actions. What is so amazing here is there is no strategy. Whether it is syria, whether it is iran, whether it is north korea, the president is all about tweets but hes not about policy. Hes not about strategy. Hes not about persistence. Hes not about a plan. That puts our security at risk. You talk in the book, ambassador sherman, about sitting across the table with the iranians, sitting across the table with the North Koreans in all of these highlevel negotiations. As you point out in the book, often as the only woman in the room. What has it been like over the course of your career . One of the thing that mad line al brigh madeline al brig Madeleine Albright is when you sit across the table, youre not a woman or a jew but the United States of america. If you understand that concept it is a wonderful thing in bringing that power to the table. I had a tremendous privilege is being able to do that. One of the things you all have been discussing all this morning and really what the mccain funeral was about was about courage and be inkling ing willy the cost that comes with courage. I talk in the book how i learned that as a child from my own parents in the Civil Rights Movement and the cost my parents took by really a business decision that was made that readers can read about. But, in fact, the courage that we need in this country right now that steve has been talking about this morning doesnt exist, and that mccain funeral touched all of us but im waiting for folks in congress, whether it is the Kavanaugh Hearing or really basic human rights, have the courage to do what is right and the cost it will take. If you could deliver a message to President Trump about how he relates to the rest of the world right now, what would you tell him . Id probably, quite frankly, suggest what former Vice President al gore has suggested, and that is that he understand hes really not fit to be president of the United States and that he ought to step aside. He doesnt understand what this country is about. He doesnt understand what our values are, and it is time for someone else to lead this country. You think hes beyond help . I do think hes beyond help. Ambassador wendy sherman, thank you. The book is not for the faint of heart, lessons in courage, power and persistence. You can read an excerpt on our site joemsnbc. Com. The president tweets and dismantles his own claim of a deep state conspiracy against him. We will have that plus reaction to his tweet scolding the attorney general for prosecuting two of the president s earliest supporters in congress. President trump says he has nothing to hide, but theres no reporting that the white house will fight to keep bob muellers findings from becoming public. Morning joe is coming right back. Ng public. Morning joe is coming right back so much of our politics, our public life, our Public Discourse can seem small and mean and petty. John called on us to be bigger than that. He auld on us to called on us t than that. The america of john mccain has no need to be great again because america was always great. If we are ever tempted to forget who we are, to grow weary of our cause, johns voice will always come as a whisper over our shoulder, we are better than this, america is better than this. As former president s, cabinet secretaries, veterans and senators marked the passing of john mccain, donald trump was golfing and on twitter. Phil rucker of the Washington Post noted quote, literally every washington power player, democratic and republican, past and present, is at mccains funeral except the sitting president who is tweeting his grievances about the doj and fbi. That twitter activity continued over the Labor Day Holiday and yesterday trump levied another attack on attorney general Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department, an attack that is quite notable even by trump standards. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. Its tuesday, september 4th. I guess the summer is officially over. With us we have former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst steve bratner. Politics editor for the daily beast sam stein. Nbc news capitol hill and host of kasie dc on msnbc, yeah, kasie hunt. Oh, yeah, rocking into the fall with us Pulitzer Prize winning associate of Washington Post, nbc political analyst Eugene Robinson. David ignatius. And letter and chief of law fare benjamin wittis along with billy, joe and me. Joe, wow, as we get ready to launch into the year it is an incredible moment in history marking the passing of john mccain. I think all of us really stopped this past weekend because the magnitude of mccains funeral i think was so powerful in a way i kind of walked away from it going well, first of all, it was so john mccain, the message of it. It was a salute to america and a very different gesture to the forces behind people like donald trump, who you wouldnt even want to mention in the room but you could just feel it. Yeah. For me, i kind of move on knowing this presidency in many ways is over and were just getting through it and goodness will prevail. That is a a really strong statement. I think most of the Trump Administration and his supporters in the press would strongly disagree with you. One thing is for sure, you did really see representatives of americas constitutional government, republicans and democrats alike, sitting next to each other, who believe in madisonian democracy, checks and balances, constitutional norms. You see lynne cheney next to al gore. You see, of course, democratic president s next to republicans, but they came together in a building to celebrate the life of one man who defied the first president who had contempt on those values, whether we are talking about an independent judiciary, whether we are talking about checks and balances, of free press, and an independent department of justice or a rule of law. Willie, what is so fast nating nating fascinating is i dont think Donald Trumps name was mentioned throughout the message. As was said in the tweet, the entire funeral was aimed at attacking President Trump. Jonah gold buberg said he thoug one of the most devilish things they did was play the battle hymn of the republic. To make the point and it is true, the values that defined john mccains life and american heroes lives Trump Supporters took as an insult, a slight to a man who does not share the values that the overwhelming of majority of people in that room shared. Well, his name wasnt mentioned but beginning with Meghan Mccain, senator mccains daughter, it was clear the message was there, it was a rebuke in many ways, also a celebration of john mccains life of course but a rebuke of President Trump. David ignatius, i think it is extraordinary to a lot of people, number one, that the sitting president of the United States was not in the room at what amounted really to a state funeral and that you had the two former president s, one republican, one democrat, both of whom vanquished john mccain and prevented him from becoming president in george w. Bush in 2000 and barack obama in 2018, delivering eulogies for the man. Well, it really did have the feel of a family funeral for the american family, the values that we hold that sometimes are hard to express, were stated so clearly and powerfully by george w. Bush and president obama. Meghan mccain was enraged as only a daughter could be at the slights toward her father, and so i think it was a day when there was a sense of who we are as a country, a sense of the path out of this difficult period and the path is simple. It is the values that virtually everybody in our public life at a senior position, gathered together in a Washington Cathedral, shares. And then the rest of the weekend we had an eruption of the problem that were dealing with, with donald trump. But certainly on the day of that funeral we knew who we were as a people and we had most articulate expressions of our common values. And, joe, the remarks by president s bush and obama i thought were especially fitting and beautiful. I guess there might have been some controversy about that. What is your take . Well, you know, there were quite a few people that found it hypocritical, even some saying, i hate politics, that the two men that took john mccain aparticipate on t aparticipate apart on the campaign trail and said rough things about john mccain in South Carolina and throughout the 2018 campaign were there eulogizing him. Actually, i would kindly tell those people who were offended that youre missing the big point. Yeah. That is the very nature of american democracy. We come together against those to fight a bigger cause, against those who we have spoken ill about and who have spoken ill of us. The greatest example of this is after the civil war. Abraham lincolns second inaugural address when he talks about with malice toward none. Right. After southerners had rebelled and caused the deaths of over 650,000 americans on the battlefield, Abraham Lincoln said, okay, now we come together as one in the union with malice toward none. It is a difficult standard, but it is a standard that were all going to have to follow as we move forward through this difficult time because it is going to be a difficult time. But thats the very essence of great leadership, as become said i have said it time and time again, a great leader must have a poor memory. Thats how you move forward and get things done for the American People. Well, as the senate gets ready to hear testimony from President Trumps Supreme Court nominee, the president is busy blasting the federal Justice System for daring to prosecute his allies. The president tweeted yesterday, two longrunning obamaera investigations of two very popular republican congressmen were brought to a wellpublicized charge just ahead of the mid terms by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because theres not enough time. Good job, jeff. The Justice Department declined to comment when asked by the New York Times. The president s claim is false in that the Insider Trading investigation of congressman Chris Collins stemmed from actions he is accused of taking five months after the Trump Administration began, including messages that prosecutors say collins sent in june of 2017 while he was at the white house congressional picnic. A hand full of republicans in congress reacted with dismay to the president s tweets. Senator ben sasse of nebraska said, the United States is not some Banana Republic with a twotiered system of justice, one for the Majority Party and one for the minority party. These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigation began. Senator jeff flake replied, this is not the conduct of a president committed to defending and up holding the constitution but rather a president looking to use the department of justice to settle political scores. Through a spokesman, Speaker Paul Ryan responded to cnn, doj should always remain apolitical, and the speaker has demonstrated he takes these charges seriously. Willie, it is almost boring because at this point his tweets are so unimportant, but you get a sense of where he is trying to take this. Well, you get the sense, benjamin, once again he views the Justice Department as an arm of the government there to protect him and not to take out its duties of protecting the constitution and carrying out criminal justice. We have seen it time and time again and it dates back to march of 2017 when Jeff Sessions recused himself from the mueller investigation. That was the original sin for President Trump. Yeah, so he i mean the tweet is pretty astonishing because it incorporates so many of his attitudes, you know, that the purpose of the Justice Department is, you know, not to do impartial justice but to protect his friends and punish his enemies, to advantage him in elections, right . And certainly not to do something that would disadvantage his favorite candidates in an election. You know, you would think that if he even if he believed these things he would have the decency to be a little bit ashamed of it, but hes not. So he just says them out loud. One problem with doing that is that, you know, if you happen to be a special counsel looking for evidence of corrupt intent, it is hard to get better than the president saying that the purpose of the Justice Department is to, you know, help you electorally and that the attorney general should pony up on that score. Yeah, thats one. You know, gene robinson, when the president is ripe for obstruction of justice and at a future time, you know, im not you know, im just a dumb country lawyer, but i would kind of mark that one as exhibit 1. You know, when they start putting together timelines, you know, and you just get your arms around all of this information, but it gets clarified when you look at the timelines and then you just sit there and look at it on the wall and youre like, oh, my lord, this is not good news for the defendant. Ive got to say, mika said something really interesting. She said it is almost boring because weve seen this act. This is like a nostalgia act. This is elvis in 1977, you know, just sort of loafing through the hits. We all know what hes going to say. We all know where it is going to go, and it seems if he fired sessions, the senate wouldnt confirm another attorney general. It is just a useless threat right now. All hes doing is building the obstruction of justice case against him. You just have to sit back and wonder and almost laugh at just how ignorant he is. Yeah. I mean how many times does he have to in public obstruct justice before we get the message . We know about donald trump. We know who he is. We know about his corruption. We know about his craziness, his inability to exercise any sort of selfcontrol. Thats who he is. Hes unfortunately president of the United States, but thats who he is. So, you know, in one sense it toss get kind of boring because you could you know, youve seen it before, youre not surprised about it. In other sense we have to i think guard against being bored by just a clear transgression of course. Of any norm of the way our system is supposed to work. It is just really incredible. So you can i mean look at the future timeline. They may be able to constrain him from firing sessions before the midterm. Right. But he is sure going to do it right after, so we should all be ready. I mean this was i mean what a fascinating few days we have had because we had those two funerals which were the reee funeral and john mccain funeral which were both portraits, pageants of america. They were as american as they could be, the Aretha Franklin funeral and john mccain funerals, they were the america we live in, and we have donald trump who is the alien force that has the powers of the presidency right now and is very difficult to dislodge. Still ahead on morning joe, it is a tough place for the country when the National Debate is over whether the president is ignorant or manaical, but thats exactly where we are on the heels of some staggering new statements from donald trump. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. Liberty mutual accident forgiveness means they wont hike your rates over one mistake. See, Liberty Mutual doesnt hold grudges. For drivers with accident forgiveness Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because of their first accident. Liberty. 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Wifi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. In many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40s. Also for the weekend, President Trump launched a new attack over a report about the warrants to surveilled former traum campaign ai traum Trump Campaign aide page. Admitted that the foreign intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the fisa warrants targeting page. On saturday, the same day as john mccains Funeral Service, the president tweeted about the report quoting, the president of Judicial Watch who said in part it is astonishing that the fisa courts couldnt hold hearings on spy warrants targeting donald trump. Isnt it about carter page . It is about the trump mika, this is it is a joke. Im sorry, yeah. We could read this, but this is so ignorant of the entire process. Yeah. Im just going to go to kasie hunt. From start to finish. From start to finish, hes wrong about how this works. You know, these were republican judges who were appointed by john roberts. You dont have hearings for these warrants. It is even Donald Trumps closest advisors, sam stein, even they were quietly grumbling. It is absolute nonsense. It is like attacking alex cora for not kicking a field goal yesterday at the end of the braves game. Why didnt he kick a field goal . It is a good question. So this weekend had me thinking a bit. I think it was Charles Krauthammer saying about how american politics is usually played between the 40yard lines. You know, you have broad c consensus between the parties of how the country should be run. Occasionally things go haywire, for example the iraq war, but by and large you stay between the 40yard lines. What donald trump is someone who is well beyond the 40yard line limit. He is doing things dramatically different from the ideological con sense us of t consensus. I take mikas point about how it is getting repetitive and boring. To me the tweet about the congressman is not boring, far scarier than things he has tweeted before. This was about weaponizing the department of justice to help his political party. Correct. Thats a different step. No, hes not well, it is frightening if he can actually do it, mika. Well, yeah, i think he cant do that. My fear is it actually will get worse. I know everyone thinks it plays out, but what happens when, for instance, they potentially lose the house of representatives and he feels cornered . Suddenly it is no longer a government in which he can just rest assured that the house will have his back and republicans have his back. Now he actually has to weaponize the department. I think it could actually get worz. Coming up on morning joe, steve bannon speaks for a lot of Trump Supporters but not next month and not in new york city. Hes now persona nongrata at the new yorkers annual festival following his invitation being pulled after the backlash. Well discuss that next on morning joe. Next on morning joe. Lets do an ad of a man eating free waffles at comfort inn. They taste like victory because he always gets the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed, when he books direct at choicehotels. Com. Or just say badda book, badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com. Takes more than just investment advice. From insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. Brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. I call it my comfortable future plan, and its all possible with a cfp® professional. Find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan. Org. On the new sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. Its the final days where all beds are on sale. The queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is now only 899. Ends sunday. 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In an email to staff, the editor noted the, quote, dismay and anger over his decision to initially invite the former trump chief strategist. He added he would be open to sitting town with bannon in the future, just not on stage. According to the times remnicks initial invitation to bannon said, quote, we would be honored to have you. Bannon responded to being disinvited calling remnick gutless. The magazines decision to cancel the appearance comes after several highprofile guests dropped out including a director who said he would not take part in an event that normalizes hate. Steve bannon could not ask for anything more than the new yorker inviting him and disinviting him to the stage. Did they make the right call . It was a wonderful labor day present for steve bannon. He should send flowers the other hollywood times that said they would not show up on the stage with him. You know, willie, this is, i think, a recurring problem that i would love to hear what you think. I think it is a recurring problem that liberals have, and i have seen it my whole life whether on College Campuses or now latenight tv, certainly in most of american popular culture. They dont get their basic views challenged. If steve bannon were just a fired white house guy, that would be one thing, but steve bannon is aligning himself with antidemocratic populist forces in europe and hes now, gabe sherman in vanity fair talking about how he is running an outside campaign for donald trump in the next campaign. I would want to know if this were happening on the left, who is this person . I want to sit down, i want to challenge him or her and defeat them with my ideas. Running and hiding well, you remember this. Yes. During the 2016 campaign, willie, if we even suggested that donald trump could win on this set the last three weeks yeah. We were bombarded with angry tweets. How dare you . You racist, you this, you that. Liberals cant hide their heads in the sand anymore, and thats what this is doing. Say lu i salute david rim ni rimnick f finding a guy most of us find objectionable. I saw him interview Sergei Lavrov and it was educational and shapes my views on russia. You need to listen to your opponents and learn from them, learn where theyre going. Does anyone doubt anyone as smart and good a journalist as David Remnick would not have held his feet to the fire, would not have held Steve Bannons feet to the fire . Theres no question he would have gotten in his face and pushed back and maybe drawn out things that hadnt been drawn out before. I think thats what he alluded to when he said, im not going to do it anymore but he said, i did plan to push back and i would like to interview him in a journalistic setting for the magazine where i could do that. My daughter and i were texting about the mid terms last night and she said, is there any concern about the left going too far left . I said absolutely. As we were sitting here watching the show, i was equally as critical about Hillary Clinton and the problem with her candidacy as i was with Donald Trumps, and, quite frankly, people are still attacking me on that, freaking out, instead of looking within and wondering what are the adjustments the left can make to prevail beyond the resist enance, which i thin lot of people on the right may join the people on the left to pushback against trump. But the left has to do better with how they move forward. We cant assume everybody feels the way we do. No, i totally agree. We meaning the left. Im to the right of you at the moment on the set. I know you were. I completely agree with what you and joe are saying about the importance of listening to the other side and having an open dialogue. My alma mater had ray kelly, the former police chief of new york come to speak and the students shouted him down and wouldnt let him speak because of stop and frisk and i thought it was a terrible moment. This case is unusual because it wasnt remnick cancelling because he wanted to cancel but because he lost all of his other speakers. When youre in that position, what do you do . Coming up on morning joe we have kicked off the season with live reports from florida, mississippi. Up next we will go live to california and arizona for a check on some of the key battle grounds there. Morning joe is coming right back. Lets begin. Yes or no . Do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet . Do you want 4. 95 commissions for stocks, 0. 50 options contracts . 1. 50 futures contracts . What about a dedicated service team of trading specialists . Did you say yes . Good, then its time for power e trade. The platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. Looks like we have a couple seconds left. Lets do some card twirling twirling cards e trade. The original place to invest online. Welcome back to morning joe. Eugene robinson and Steve Schmitt are still with us. We want to continue our look this morning at the key issues at play when voters cast their ballots just over two months from now. Among them, the u. S. Supreme court. Donald trumps nominee goes before the senate in less than an hour. So how vulnerable democrats are democrats in states that trump won as they cast their confirmation vote . One of those senators is democrat Claire Mccaskill of missouri and nbc news correspondent Morgan Radford joins us live from st. Louis. Morgan, how important is this vote on Brett Kavanaugh to missouri voters . Reporter kavanaugh is important not only to these voters but also to the candidates in this dead heat race. Were locked in a dead heat now between democratic incumbent Claire Mccaskill and her republican challenger josh hawley. If you look at this brandnew nbc marist pole out this morning it shows them locked neck in neck at 47 and 47 . That means it is shaping up to be one of the most Important Senate races in all of 2018 because it could determine who is going to control the senate. Remember, it is also a referendum largely on President Trump, again looking at that poll trump here has a 46 advertise Approval Rating and 45 aproeproval rating. This is notable because as you mentioned Claire Mccaskill is one of the most vulnerable in the senate right now and, number two, she is one of those fighting to keep their seats in a state trump overwhelmingly won. He took missouri by 20 points in 2016. A lot of the voters we have spoken to say they care primarily about three issues, one, kavanaugh. Two, about tariffs. Three, about the president himself. When it comes to kavanaugh, hawleys team spoke to us and said he is going to nail mccaskill to the wall about the kavanaugh issue and hes going to remind voters she did not vote for gorsuch and she has not tipped her hat what she is going to do with the kavanaugh vote. She met with him in august and she said she is waiting to hear what he says in his confirmation hearing. Thats what voters are waiting to hear. All eyes on this race in missouri. Mika. Thank you for that. Willie. Lets bring in former acting solicitor journalist, now an nbc analyst, neil. We spoke with the kavanaugh hering today. Lets listen. Reporter last night after the close of business on the last day of the Holiday Weekend we got a document dump of 42,000 pages of documents. That idea any judge in the United States would go forward with a trial the day after a document dump like that is preposterous, yet here we are going ahead because theyre so desperate to jam this guy on to the court. The ultimate question here is why are they so desperate to jam this guy on to the court. So, neil, 42,000 documents dumped last night hours before the hearing was set to begin in just under an hour from now. Some people said democrats ought not to show up to the hearing. Chuck schumer asked them to be pushed back. Unlikely that will happen at this point, of course. What is your view . Im not someone who reflexably agrees with senator schumer, but on this one i think they have a point. This is the most consequential Supreme Court nomination hearing in our lifetime and they have hid the documents. Some of them were dumped at 9 00 p. M. Last night, 42,000 pages of documents. I take my guidance from senator grassley who during the kagan hearing said, hey, kagans documents are real important. We cant have a hearing until those documents are provided. I was intimately involved in that document production, i was her deputy and we saw it. It was robust and not a single page was with heeld. It is not good for the court or judge kavanaugh. Beyond not showing up, what recourse do democrats have because republicans have the votes to push through Brett Kavanaugh. I hope judge kavanaugh himself would look at this and say, im seeking a lifetime seek to our nations highest court, theres a cloud around this. Lets get the documents out. Lets have a debate about them. That is what happened with kagan and earlier nominees. It is an unseemly thing to switch up the rules all of the sudden because you have one or two extra votes in the senate as republicans do. It doesnt seem fair. It seems there should be a process. We can jump back into this but im curious about your thoughts on the president s tweets on Jeff Sessions. Really punching at the doj. Totally. This is an unforgivable act. You know, this is just, you know, him being honest and saying, look what does unforgivable mean . He has had many unforgivable acts in his presidency yet everybody moves on. Yeah. Is there something i dont think we can move on from this one because, after all, what is your core function as president . What do you do on january 20th . You take an up hold an oath that the law be faithfully executed. Here he is saying, i dont want it faithfully executed against republicans in congress, only against democrats. You know, if he treats the Justice Department and his own attorney general that way, whats to make us think hes not going to think that way about the Supreme Court . Whats to make us think that wasnt part of his nomination process in his head when he decided to pick the judges he has picked . I know the answer, but yes or no. Abuse of power . Obviously. Gene robinson, i mean this is abuse of power and yet it just you know, i did say at the top of the show, tweets are getting boring because his schtick is getting boring. He bucks trends, he bursts through norms and he abuses his power on a daily basis. The question is exactly what can or should happen when Something Like this goes on . Well, look, worrying might or might not be the word, but we certainly become innured to outrages abuses of power by donald trump. You know, thats a ridiculous thing for me to say but it is true. We get used to this sort of thing and we shouldnt. It is more than outrageous that the president of the United States would have such sentiments, would express such sentiments, would think that the attorney general is basically his legal shield and the Republican Partys legal shield rather than the chief Law Enforcement officer of the country. But we know that about donald trump. And, frankly, i dont know i know there are a lot of people, and i think you will see them come out and vote in november, who Pay Attention and who see how outrageous this is and who will vote against it in november, and there are a lot of people who look at this as process in washington and words and they not entirely without reason, say, why should we worry about that stuff . Lets look at what concretely happens. So, look, trumpism has to be defeated. It is not going to give up and it is not going to change. It has to be defeated in november. Steve . Well, 100 . Chief Justice John Roberts during the confirmation hearings in 2005 made the point that the soviet union had basically in its constitution all the same rights that we have in ours, but, of course, it was a totalitarian society. What was the different difference in the countries . And it was the tradition of the rule of law in this country. So what we see here is an illegitimate process that will yield an illegitimate Supreme Court justice and further degrade in the publics mind the legitimacy of the institution of the Supreme Court itself. Yeah. Ill compliment trump in this regard. He is utterly and absolutely indefatigable when it comes to his vialnesleness, and it exhau everybody. The problem with it is when you are in a fight, theres only two ways to win a fight. You either have to bring your opponent to submission think germany and japan after world war ii or you wear them out think the United States in the vietnam war. Trump wears people out. He exhausts them. He numbs them. He completely that sounds like a dictator in the making actually. He just completely wears them out. Yeah. And whats at stake here is immense for this country, and we totally forget about this, is that in this country citizenship, civics, is that theres an expectation of obligation as a citizen to be informed, to be involved. Because in a democracy you get the government you deserve. Again, i said it earlier. Yeah. The choice in 2018, do you want to have a check on this, yes or no. If the answer is no and trumpistan is essentially endorsed, we are going to live in a very different country ten years from now. That much is absolute. I think, neil, what we saw over the past weekend in the Funeral Service of john mccain was a collective and very unified no. Yeah, absolutely. It is so ano, maam lus nmylous. I think the president believes law is life ak the weekend or Something Like that. He doesnt think of it in the hallowed ways of our traditions. Thats why the nomination is so troubling. Before you go, with all of that in mind and everything said here, is there any chance that Brett Kavanaugh is not seated on the Supreme Court . He is certainly a lovely man, someone who has done well on the nations second highest court. The issue here is not about the nominee but the nominator. Thank you very much. Msnbc will have full coverage of the confirmation hearings when they start in less than an hour. Thanks gep. Thanks, neil. Up next, two more live reports on the political battleground taking shape ahead of november. We will check in with Steve Patterson and Gadi Schwartz next on morning joe. Joe. Rinkle crem in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. You always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed . Lets say it in a really low voice. Carl . Lowest price, guaranteed. Just stick with badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. 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Throughout the show this morning, weve been taking a closer look at the issues at play in november. Now we bring in nbc news correspondent Steve Patterson live for us in san diego and in phoenix, nbc news correspondent Gadi Schwartz. Steve, ill begin with you outside the federal court where in a few hours inkited congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife are due in court. How has this affected the race for the 50th district out there, especially with donald trump tweeting about it yesterday . Well, it essentially puts it in play. Hunter expected, along with his wife, back in court, after both pleading not guilty to essentially moving Campaign Funds as their own personal piggy bank. The last time he showed up here, there was a huge chorus of boos. You might expect some of that today. This is why trump essentially launched that attack on twitter against Jeff Sessions. Saying that look, these are two easy races. One of them was referring to the ca50. This district is thought to be ruby red. When you look at the cook political report, they rated an rplus 11. Its a little bit less republican than the state of alabama. So for this to be in play, for us to be here is an extremely big deal. I think a lot of people say looking at this overall race heading into november, what this means is that the path to victory runs through california. If democrats were looking at flipping seven seats, now theyre looking at flipping eight seats. This is why this fight is so exciting. You look at places like the ca25th, the 48th, the 49th, all these places that were once thought to be long historical republican locks are now all in play. The democrats are doing an incredible job of fundraising. Expect republicans now to fight back. Expect this opening salvo of Television Ads to attack and undercut the democrats where they stand early on before it gets on into november. Thats work thats being done. All of this is in whats considered the resistance state, california, the attorney general firing lawsuits at the Trump Administration, the back and forth here creating a really exciting situation heading into november. Duncan hunter in the latest polling still up eight points but well see if that holds as we go through this indictment and hearing. Gadi schwartz is live in arizona. That states been at the center of the political conversation recently. Whats at the top of the list there as you talk to voters . Well, at the top of the list here in arizona are going to be some of the traditional things weve heard in the past. Immigration and health care. This is one of the states that was most affected by health care. Its one of those border states. So immigration is at the top of the list. Here in arizona, it looks like about twothirds of arizonians are opposed to a wall and opposed to that family separation according to the most recent polls. So thats going to feature very prominent in these elections. But weve seen some races where not what youd expect. You expect to see those polar opposites. Here in arizona, youre seeing a lot more of a moderate playing field. You had march ththa mcsally who beat out arpaio and ward, some of the biggest Trump Supporters in the game, and shes up against kirsten sinema. In congress, she supported i. C. E. There was that push to abolish i. C. E. And she was one of those democrats that stood up and said that she supported i. C. E. In at least as an institution. So youre starting to see these two different candidates that are somewhat of a middle ground. Theyre not necessarily on one side or on the other as much as some people would expect. But here in arizona, this is a state thats the demographics have been changing. Youve got a lot more hispanics that live in this traditionally red state. Youve also got an influx of people moving here from other states. A lot of people moving here from california. Its going to be interesting to see how that plays out in the next elections. Theres also the governors business of appointing a replacement for the late john mccain. Speaking of john mccain, steve schmidt, a guy you knew very well, a guy you worked for, a guy for whom you have great affection. You spoke for him movingly during the service. What are your thoughts . This is the first time weve all been together here since senator mccain passed. My thoughts are that what the Funeral Service highlighted were the things that he deeply believed in. And that National Cathedral was filled to rafters with people bobble heading in agreement when it came to those high deals and virtues. But those same people, will they stand up and defend those ideals with courage the way that john mccain has . When we look at the Majority Party, we look at the assault on the rule of law, we look at the president s assaults on the Justice Department, the intelligence community, give me the name of the republican senator who will on this first tuesday after labor day will walk out in washington, d. C. , look into the camera and say enough is enough is enough. What republican will do that . Who will pick up the fight . And here is what is certainly true. John mccains service to the country is over. His work is done. John mccain is at rest. And i like to think of a john mccain liberated from his pain and from his wounds, looking down on us, in a judgment of who will be fideltous to the American Public. Who will fight for American Values . Who will join the fight . That is a critical question. We have seen mitch mcconnell, paul ryan, they will be remembered through the ages as cowards, spineless, sue pine weaklingings at this moment of danger to every norm of decency in this country that is presented by donald trump. And that is a fundamental political question for our era, because i believe were living through a season of cowardice in this country and we have the worst generation of Political Leadership in the history of the United States of america. Senator mcclane delivered that message through his daughter meghan. Through the speeches made by president s bush and obama. Why is it so hard to be john mccain . Why is it so hard to speak truth to power . It wasnt hard for john mccain. There was no cost to john mccain. Im a small c conservative and im a capitalist. I believe in the power of incentives. If you have incentives in the political system that reward crazy behavior, you get more crazy people. If you have incentives in the political system that punish crazy behavior, you get less of it. Think of joe wilson, the congressman from north carolina. Reportedly drunk on the floor of the house for the state of the union. What happens to him . 20 years before, he would have had to resign. He would have been led out of there by his ear for disgracing the institution. Instead, he raised millions of dollars overnight for yelling you lie. If youre some congressman, some pour sh lub whos walking over to the national committee, what does that tell you . Well, if i shout you lie, if i degrade the institutions, if i act like a nut, im rewarded by it. Weve come out in american politics. This used to be a business of persuasion. We all would look at us, objective facts and truth, generally agree these are the problems the countrys facing. We have different solutions, different roots, but this has become inkricitement. The choice were presented with is, well, were going to have baby interment camps, were to take breastfeeding children away from their moms, or abolish any immigration enforcement. Thats the choice. Its profoundly dumb. And john mccain, when he stood for something, was so much bigger than the smallness inherited in this moment. The politics of today will separate the men from the boys. And well see that happen. I have to say this presidency is an aberration. Its an assault on everything were made of. But we thank john mccain for allaying our fears and letting us know in death that we will be okay. That does it for us this morning. Brian williams picks up msnbcs special coverage of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings right now. Thank you, all. Im brian williams. As we come on the air for special coverage of these confirmation hearings today. In a moment, we will take you live to room 216 at the Hart Senate Office building on capitol hill. If you were to draw a line on a map of washington from the d. C. Circuit court of appeals, where judge kavanaugh has worked for the last 12 years, to the Supreme Court, you go straight through capitol hill. In other words, congress is the only thing now standing between Brett Kavanaugh and a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. Two people at the heart of todays events will not be there in the room. That will be the president and special